John Abell News
Scottish countertenor, composer and lutenist
Commemorations 2024 (Death: John Abell)
- lute, voice
- countertenor
- classical music
- Kingdom of Scotland, Kingdom of Great Britain
- composer, opera singer, lutenist
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2024-04-25
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2024-04-17 06:39:00
Southbank Centre's new season: Schoenberg's 150th, the OAE in Bruckner, Joyce Didonato in Berlioz, The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim
Igor Levit (Photo: Felix Broede )The Southbank Centre has announced its Autumn/Winter programme for 2024/25 which includes a five-day Opening Weekend, residencies from violist Lawrence Power, organist James McVinnie and Manchester Collective, and visitors include Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson, the Borodin Quartet celebrating its 80th anniversary, Concerto Italiano, The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performing Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and the BBC Concert Orchestra with Unclassified Live.The Opening Weekend, from 25 to 29 September 2024, features Joyce DiDonato in Berlioz with Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia launching its Nordic Soundscapes series with Sibelius, Grieg and María Sigfúsdóttir conducted by Santtu-Matias Rouvali, violist Lawrence Power and composer Thomas Ades, the Multi-Storey Orchestra, cellist Matthew Barley, the Paraorchestra, and the Scottish Ensemble. Pianist Igor Levit performs works by Bach, Brahms and Beethoven in his Royal Festival Hall solo recital debut.Lawrence Power will continue his residency by joining […]
2023-12-31 18:04:00
Over at Boulezian, Mark Berry has a summary of his operatic year, and after reading it, I decided to do one myself. In the process, I discovered that three operas never made it onto the list of operas I've seen, so, I'm particularly glad to have gone through this exercise. Here's what I saw in 2023, in alphabetical order by composer.Aa, van der, Blank OutBates, The Revolution of Steve JobsBritten, The Rape of LucretiaDavis, The Life and Times of Malcolm X (Met HD)Debussy, Pelléas et Mélisande (Two productions, superb in every way at LA Opera, a muddled production at Santa Fe)Dvořák, RusalkaFrank, El último sueño de Frida y DiegoGiddens and Abel, OmarMartinez, Cruzar la Cara de la LunaMonteverdi, L'OrfeoMonteverdi, L'incoronazione di PoppeaMoravec, The ShiningOh, The EmissaryPuccini, Madama ButterflyReagon and Reagon, Octavia Butler's The Parable of the SowerSaariaho, Adriana MaterSchoenberg, ErwartungShearer, Prospero's GhostStrauss, Die Frau ohne SchattenStravinsky, The NightingaleVerdi, Il TrovatoreVerdi, FalstaffWagner, Die Fliegende HollanderWagner, LohengrinWallen, […]
2023-12-31 09:22:00
2023 in record reviews: 17th century Venice as a gay haven, Dichterliebe Reimagined, Elgar on viola, Ethel Smyth's first operatic success
Richard Boothby's Music to hear... explored Alfonso Ferrabosco's 1609 book of music for solo lyra viol. Jorge Navarro Colorado and Randall Scotting celebrated 17th-century Venice as a place of tolerance for gay artists. We know Bach, but what of the other applicants for his Leipzig post in 1723? Leipzig 1723 gave us cantatas by Bach, Telemann, and Graupner. Whilst for the next generation of the Bach family, Les Ombres took us back to the elegance of the Bach-Abel evenings in London.With Dichterliebe Reimagined, Koen van Stade and Neal Peres Da Costa brought creative freedom and musical rhetoric to bear on an historically informed account of Schumann's song cycle. Viola player Timothy Ridout seduced in his transcription of Elgar's Cello Concerto. Ethel Smyth's first major success, Der Wald, finally received its premiere recording in a terrific account from John Andrews and BBC Symphony Orchestra, making us ask, why the wait? A disc […]
2023-12-01 10:37:00
Monteverdi's first opera, the historically informed Ring Cycle continues, Bruckner's 200th birthday, composer Sven Helbig live - Dresden's 47th music festival
Wagner: Das Rheingold - Derek Welton, Kent Nagano, Mauro Peter, Daniel Schmutzhard, Concerto Köln & Dresdner Festspielorchester - Dresden Music Festival 2023The 47th Dresden Music Festival runs from 9 May to 9 June 2024 under the title Horizons, presenting 60 events in 21 venues in and around Dresden. Things kick off in fine style with a concert performance of Wagner's Die Walküre with Kent Nagano conducting the combined forces of two period instrument ensembles, the Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln, a continuation of the festival's exploration of an historically informed Ring Cycle that began last year with Des Rheingold [see my review]. Further historically informed performances include soprano Janine de Bique and Concerto Köln in arias by Handel, Graun, Broschi, Telemann and Vinci, Haydn's The Seasons with Jordi Savall and La Capella Nacional de Catalunya and Le Concert des Nations, Mark Minkowski and the Dresdner Festspielorchester in Wagner, Mendelssohn and excerpts from Offenbach's rare grand opera Die Rheinnixen. The ensemble […]
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